Holiday Cottages In Salcombe

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Christopher - Verified booking

  16 Bolt Head (Winkle Cottage) is in an excellent location, only 100 yards or so from the beach at South Sands, a slightly longer walk uphill to Overbeck Gardens (beautiful) and on the doorstep of the westward coastal path.

  The roads accessing this property are very narrow, steep and winding. This entails much jousting with oncoming traffic and pedestrians. Needless to say once the car was parked, that’s where it stayed. If you don’t wish to cook then South Sands beach has the South Sands Hotel, Harbour Beach Club Hotel (both pricey) and Bo’s Beach café (better value). A further pleasant walk to North Sands beach will get you to The Winking Prawn which is well worth visiting for food or coffee. We preferred this. Salcombe itself is a brisk 35 minute walk away. Within the complex there is a lovely viewing point with a seat only 30 yards from the house. The property is good holiday accommodation and I would certainly use it again simply for the location. The kitchen is well stocked with utensils, the lounge/dining area was comfortable as were the bedrooms. The en-suite is large and very convenient, while the bathroom felt a little cramped, but adequate. The outdoor area is located in a courtyard (with some greenery), but is not secluded. There is a footpath at the end of the patio area which other residents use to access the rear car park. Storage space in the main bedroom is good, though a few more hangers would not go amiss. In the second bedroom it is inadequate for two adults but is probably enough for two children. In the third bedroom – what storage? The worst part of the experience was the “allocated” parking space. The description warns that it is sloping back to front but what it doesn’t say is that it also slopes down very much at one front corner i.e. tilted (which makes parking trickier) and the bay is very narrow with a low wall on one side. Had there been a vehicle in bay 17 then I would not have been able to exit the car once parked. Also my wing mirrors would have fouled the wall had I not spotted this and closed them before entering the bay. The only solution is to find a parking slot for an empty property and hope no-one else turns up. I have few other adverse comments, none of which spoiled our stay. I imagine that the owners are aware that there are problems with the extractor fans, because these were turned off at the isolating switches. The ensuite fan doesn’t function when the isolator is turned on, while turning on the bathroom fan results in a terrible smell akin to that of a refuse vehicle – only ten times worse. The owners need to sort out who is responsible for emptying the vacuum cleaner. Like good clients we cleaned the property at the end of our stay, as requested. The vacuum cleaner (a good one) was very ineffective and smelled. On opening it I discovered that the bag hadn’t been emptied for months, possibly years. It was so full it looked pregnant. There were no replacements bags so I proceeded to empty it through the tiny hole. This took a good 30 minutes because in addition to much dust, the contents were mainly hair and fibres, all of which had to be pulled out. The cleaner worked well after this attention. Owners please note – reduced rental for me next time!! Finally, the instructions, while comprehensive and clear are somewhat out of date. For example, clients are asked to strip beds and to place bedding and towels in the red bag provided and also (elsewhere in the instructions) in the black bags provided. There were no bags provided. We just bunged them in the bath! I had better re-emphasize “It is a good place to stay”.

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• Lisa - Verified booking

  After 7yrs of the Dolphins being our home from home I didn’t think I would be writing a review like the below but I feel after the way our complaints have been handled its a justified one to inform future all customers.

  Our most recent stay this year confirmed in our view that the prices have risen but the standards have fallen. On previous years we have politely informed Coast and Country that the small fridge in the kitchen was not closing properly, and therefore not keeping temp and that there were no shelves due to them presumably being broken. This was again not rectified and to make matters worse the additional fridge in the pantry also had shelves missing / broken. Not a deal breaker but when a party of 7 are staying it doesn’t leave much option for the storage of open milk etc. A review of this issues was left by us back in 2020! Our main issue however was the condition of one of the en suite bathrooms. On arrival I noticed that grout was missing around a number of tiles on the floor and one of the tiles had cracked in many places & was sticking up, upon walking on the floor there was excessive movement on the floor and mould behind the toilet. From a health and safety point of view and with young children we chose not to use this bathroom during our stay. During the day when we were out of the house and we returned, walking into the bedroom there was a strong smell of ammonia, much like walking into a public urinal. This in my view is unacceptable and should have been picked up on the clean along with the subsiding floor, with Coast and Country informing me before our stay with a plan on how it was to be resolved. We took the decision to wait until our departure day before informing Coast and Country as we had a lot planned for the week and with young children didn’t want to be hanging around the property waiting on someone coming to inspect. In our view the bathroom floor needs replacing and this would not be a five min job whilst the house had occupants. There were other issues that I can concur with on the below reviews, cleanliness is not great, the bottom room is completely out of bounds due to smelling so bad, bins not being emptied on arrival. Today we received an update from Sykes/coast & country on our complaint, I am FUMING with the response and utterly gobsmacked in the lack of customer service. I paid the £2700 for a week and I expect a lot more. To be told that nothing will be done because we didn’t inform them to the issues during our stay is a joke. No phone call reply to discuss, just a couple of paragraphs basically sweeping it under the carpet. It’s not for me or the other members of our party to keep Coast and Country etc informed of maintenance issues, this job sits with Coast and Country and not the customer and reading most of the below reviews it seems all customers are being dealt with the same treatment, nothing being done! This will be our last time staying at this property, it’s a shame as we have enjoyed our times over the years. If only those who take your money took onboard the feedback below we would be going again next year! Another note to the owner .. You pay a fee to coast and country to clean your property between stays. This clearly isn’t happening with all the reviews stating the same, maybe don’t pay them? And for our inconveniences, refund customers a small amount?? I barely ever complain & I wouldn’t be writing this review if you actually took the complaint seriously. The toilet was complained about previously back in Feb 2022 & nothing been done???

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• Shelley - Verified booking

  The property is over the Fat Face shop in Fore Street and if you are facing the property, the gated entrance is found down a narrow path to the right of the shop.

  The access codes for both the gate and the key pad were sent by email once we booked the property. There is a small car park approx. 30m further up Fore Street, which for a small charge we parked in just to unload the car and get everything to the property. The long stay car park permit was on the dining table waiting for us and we then moved our car to the long stay Creek car park which is located past the Co-op. The property was lovely, clean, and with a very well equipped kitchen. We cooked all our evening meals there, having bought our vegan supplies for the week with us. The fridge has only a small freezer compartment. We ate lunch on the go and we never had a problem finding vegan options in any shop, cafe or restaurant. The owner kindly supplied new tea towels, a few dishwasher tablets and a 100ml bottle of washing up liquid. All bath towels are supplied but not swimming towels. The beds were very comfortable and the two small bathrooms were great for us. There was a small amount of damp in the main bedroom fireplace and ceiling which I am sure the owner will address, as overall, the property has been well cared for and was nicely decorated. The TV is big and made for a great Eurovision evening. The radio is in one of the wall kitchen cabinets. There is a shelf of videos and books which was a nice touch. We did not use the wood burner as the weather was great, but it's a nice feature. The clothes hanging space was limited but there is plenty of drawers which was just right for the two of us. There is some covered building work approximately 20m behind the property. Although it is visible, it did not bother us as there are lovely blinds and shutters to arrange as you wish for privacy throughout the property. Noise was not in any way a problem, indeed the property was surprisingly quiet considering it is on the main street. For us the position was perfect as it was right in the heart of Salcombe, with the ferries shops, pubs and cafes all on a level walk. (No hard slog up to a rental at the top of the hill at the end of a day for us!) We had a fantastic week exploring some of the South Coast Path which was stunning and beautiful. We would recommend popping into the information centre to pick up the maps of some of the circular walks: Gara Rock, Bolt Head, Snapes Point, Bolt Tail, Thurleston. Don't miss a ferry trip to South Sands to explore Overbeck Gardens; the views are superb. Thank you for a fantastic week. We would not hesitate to recommend this property or to book it again. On one more point. I left a small rucksack at the property when we left, but after a quick call to Coast and Country Cottages, this was returned to our home address within days for a reasonable £30.

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• Lucy - Verified booking

  We absolutely loved the house, the views are spectacular and for a family with 4 16 year olds and 2 older( not so) children in their early 20's, the bedrooms and bathrooms are perfect.

  Our issue is with the agent, Sykes, and not for the first time. Following a fairly significant mouse issue, we continually chased Sykes for action, to discover none had been taken until over 3 hours later, when we asked to move out. The pest control company were unable to come by the time anyone contacted them, and we were offered several very sub standard properties, without the view or proximity to the sea, which was what we went away for, or the bed set up for our party, yet Sykes ( see James' response on Trustpilot) still insist they offered us 'several alternatives'. In all the review responses, Sykes very unhelpfully point out that they are merely the agent. We are well aware of that. Our issue is not with the owner, as we feel were we able to deal with them directly, we could have had a proper conversation rather than call centres in Chester, and infuriating scripts. Having said that, the issue is clearly well known to the owner, as there were traps with dead mice under the kitchen cupboards and the dishwasher cable was chewed through causing a substantial leak in a kitchen cupboard, leading to further loss of food. The fact mice were getting into the kitchen cupboards and had eaten our bread, was really not pleasant, and shows there must be quite a significant problem, and the house should not have been available for a holiday let in that state. In short, with a more robust solution to the mouse problem, we would love to stay there again, but not while Sykes are the agent. We will never use them again. Once spoken to, the owner has offered a refund for the stress and inconvinience the incident caused. I hope the owner is now challenging Sykes' appalling lack of action and robot-like service, as I feel confident they are charging them a fortune. We felt they would happily have left us waiting for someone to come out, without any reassurance of when, any ability to escalate issues away from people who can only quote scripts, and anyone who cares enough to take timely action to resolve an issue. This was our holiday, we don't go away a lot and this was a treat for my husband's 50th. It's amazing what a difference good or bad customer service can make and Sykes have a long way to go to address their customer service.

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• Georgina - Verified booking

  The property location could not be bettered for access to North Sands and walking into the centre of Salcombe and we loved being able to see the sea and across the valley from the apartment.

  The off road parking is an absolute bonus and the heating and hot water systems very efficient. The property manager was very helpful and the maintenance engineer checked the new fridge/ freezer just after we arrived. Acknowledging that our stay was towards the end of the 'season', the outside areas were not particularly inviting. The BBQ looked as if it had not been used for a long time, the gas was disconnected and it looked unsafe. There is a rusted wheelbarrow and boat trailer in the garden along with broken pots, and lights that do not work and the lid of the refuse bin is broken The covered area ceiling was very dirty with algae and signs of persistent leaks and some of the plants are very overgrown. As another guest mentioned, this was obviously a stunning apartment when it was refurbished, with good quality fittings that have stood the test of time (the shower, kitchen ovens, hob and dishwasher). We enjoyed that it felt very much like a home with the extensive books and games available to guests. However, the soft furnishings are showing their age and the tiled floor is very marked and cracked. We expect to find cobwebs etc as holiday properties are rarely cleaned to the standard of your own home, but when adjusting the sofa cushions there was a seasons worth of crumbs and dust underneath. We only used the bedroom with the ensuite shower and the bed was decidedly uncomfortable after a while and you could feel the springs. Would we visit again? Not sure, the apartment above was unoccupied until the last night of our stay, when the noise from above was intrusive and unsettled our dog.

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